On 25 April 2021, a large group of
ISWAP insurgents killed 33
soldiers
A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer.
Etymology
The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...
in Mainok, a town west of
Maiduguri in
Borno State
Borno State is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Yobe to the west, Gombe to the southwest, and Adamawa to the south while its eastern border forms part of the national border with Cameroon, its northern border ...
,
Nigeria.
The terror attacks
Wearing
military camouflage, the
militant
The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...
s arrived in four mine-resistant trucks, a
scorpion armored personnel carrier, and several gun trucks. They split into three groups before attacking the army base. At the base, ISWAP destroyed a
T-55 battle tank, a
BTR-4EN, and stole several
MRAPs. The attackers fled to their camp around the Lawan Mainari axis, as the
air force carried out
airstrike
An airstrike, air strike or air raid is an offensive operation carried out by aircraft. Air strikes are delivered from aircraft such as blimps, balloons, fighters, heavy bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters and drones. The offic ...
s against them.
When the ISWAP terrorists were confronted with military planes heading towards them to attack them, they set fire to the police station in Mainok in a rage and then fled to the primary school there.
When soldiers arrived from
Damaturu in response, ISWAP
ambushed the reinforcements, killing three, injuring nine, and stealing a MRAP.
An
air force drone accidentally bombed a vehicle belonging to the army, killing 20.
Afterfights
The attack was followed by prolonged and unrelenting fighting in the towns of
Geidam, Kumuya and Buni Gari in
Yobe province.
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms were deployed in the sky by the NAF.
See also
*
Timeline of the Boko Haram insurgency
*
List of terrorist incidents in 2021
References
2021 murders in Nigeria
2020s in Borno State
21st-century mass murder in Nigeria
April 2021 crimes in Africa
Attacks on military installations in the 2020s
Boko Haram attacks in Borno State
Islamic terrorist incidents in 2021
Mass murder in 2021
Mass murder in Borno State
Terrorist incidents in Nigeria in 2021
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